Space Gen review: A documentary-styled fiction that connects the facts but forgets to tell a compelling story!

TVF’s Space Gen sticks to the familiar, spoon-fed storytelling style of The Viral Fever that is educational at its core, but, this time, it falls short of building a strong emotional connect!

We often hear stories of success, the one-in-a-million who made it to the top. What we rarely discuss are the failures that lead to that success, those moments where everything collapses, even hope. Where you choose not to run away from failure, but sit with it, dissect it, interpret it, and most importantly, learn from it, not just to avoid repeating the same mistakes, but to return more prepared, more aware and stronger. That, in theory, is what TVF’s Space Gen: Chandrayaan wants to be about. As it isn’t merely the success story of Chandrayaan 3, but a tale of belief and resilience that begins with the failure of Chandrayaan 2. However, aspiration alone is not a substitute for effort and Space Genends up proving exactly that, as it loses itself in its eagerness to mirror the triumphant narrative of Chandrayaan 3 without earning its emotional weight.

The five-episode series follows a familiar, template-driven structure moving predictably from failure to redemption. It opens with the nation’s heightened expectations around the Chandrayaan 2 launch, followed by its inevitable failure and the internal inquiry that places the responsibility squarely on a group of scientists. This is where we’re introduced to maverick engineer Arjun (Nakuul Mehta), largely responsible for navigation of the lunar lander Vikramattached to Chandrayaan and consequently blamed for the mission’s failure.

Much like Robert J. Oppenheimer, Arjun is portrayed as a brilliant but conflicted genius - torn by his boundless enthusiasm for space science, a traumatic past of overbearing grief and the crushing responsibility of serving the nation. His failure manifests in panic attacks, turning his inner turmoil into the show’s emotional anchor where we get to see the humans behind the machines. Hence there is this new ISRO chief Dr. Ramaiah(Prakash Belawadi), who prioritises machines over humans, and project head Dr. Yamini(Shriya Saran), a hopeful, almost childlike scientist who still marvels at rockets and believes in preserving that innocence within science.

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Unfortunately, this promising emotional framework is diluted by the show’s direction. Helmed by Anant Singh, the show chooses to structure itself more like a documentary that occasionally slips into fiction when required. We walked through the logistical and technical struggles behind Chandrayaan 3 - make in India manufacturing of Chandrayaan 3 parts, reducing rocket weight, tackling space debris, dealing with self-doubt, and navigating geopolitical pressure amid a global space race. While all of this is informative, it rarely becomes engaging. Instead of building a human connection, the series increasingly feels like a polished PR-style documentary, something like the biographical exercises like The Romanticsor The Roshans, only presented within a fictional framework. The information is there, but the emotion isn’t.

The show gestures towards a “new India” and, by extension, new patriotism, one where wars aren’t fought only at borders but also in space. It’s a timely idea, especially when it feels overdue for a Republic Day release to look beyond familiar defence narratives. However, the show never fully embodies this shift in spirit. While no one expects the visual grandeur of Christopher Nolan'sOppenheimer or Interstellar, nor should they, given the likely budget constraints, the series also fails to compensate with narrative or emotional depth. Which is ironic, given that it is based on an ISRO mission that achieved the unthinkable - successfully pulling off a space mission on a fraction of the budget typically required for comparable missions in the US or Russia. This doesn’t manage to capture even half of that ingenuity or ambition on screen. In fact, in its effort to make complex science accessible, it pushes it to the point of dullness and the cast seems to be trying too hard just like the show.

More than anything, ISRO deserves better than this. Especially when the organisation has shared archival footage and research with TVF, the responsibility to do justice to that material becomes even greater. The platform that can make IAS aspirants feel seen and understood should be able to do far more for aeronautics and space aspirants than reducing their stories to a tone deaf documentary that misses out on making an emotionally resonant impact!

Space Gen: Chandrayaan is currently streaming on JioHotstar!

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